DAM Interoperability – The Answer To The Orphan Works Problem For Asset Intellectual Property Owners?

My co-contributor, Ralph Windsor, has written an article for CMSWire which they published yesterday: The Building Blocks Of Digital Asset Management Interoperability. He has a slightly unconventional take on the interoperability subject which those with an IT/systems perspective might not have considered (but which is no less valid for it). He also uses some posts about Linked Data we have featured by Tim Strehl (who is featured in our resources section). In brief, Ralph proposes four key building blocks which could be used to provide an interoperability framework:

Linked Data

Unique Global Asset Identifiers

Asset Registries

Embedded Metadata

Asset registries is a reference to PLUS (Picture Licensing Universal System). The thesis of his piece is that asset registries and linked data could be used to facilitate both a method to prove ownership of an asset and also for interoperability between DAM systems. A unique identifier like an ISBN number but for digital assets and embedded metadata would provide the ‘glue’ to connect all this together.

“A lot of the work carried out by those with an interest in preserving copyright and licensing could be re-used to validate interoperability and asset registries like PLUS might provide the same role for digital assets that domain name registries do for the DNS system that is a core service across the internet…As well as the ability to enforce or verify copyright, asset registries, unique identifiers and embedded metadata have an equal role to play in providing interoperability between DAM systems.” [Read More]

Ralph also discusses CMIS (Content Management Interoperability Services) and notes that while a good interoperability model, the chances of it being adopted by DAM vendors are reduced because it is relatively complex for developers to implement and there are other competing standards in circulation – both points I would agree with.

This as interesting article and although I am somewhat miffed that he gave CMSWire the opportunity of publishing it rather than DAM News, I must concede that it would get a bigger audience via their publication than this one. The connection with the DAM Value Chain topic which we have been discussing in 2013 has not been lost on any of us either, so you can expect some articles that connect this topic back up with that subject in the near future.